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Hello all, I wanted to add this topic here. It's one of the sections from a short book I wanted to write about tanks in college but never got around to finishing. So here's the outline with some of the content. So one thing I repeatedly see here there and everywhere is "Oh no! Snails, what do I do?!" Well I intend to tell you what they're about, help you identify them and learn to decide if they'll be good or bad for your personal goals of your tank. 1. Let's start with what I call "The hasty judgement." This is usually what people do when they first see or notice a snail they didn't originally purchase: they freak out. They don't know how it got there, but chances are it's a bad thing. This is false. No matter what snail is running around your tank, it is not a bad thing straight away. Go through some thought processes and read some information. Talk to knowledgable people. 2. Next thing to address is the frantic forum post from the above freakout, and the responses these posts can garner: I see many, across all forums, that I'd classify as frantic forum posts about snails. Take a deep breath, like I said, take your time, there's nothing urgent, unlike if this were a dragonfly nymph. These posts are usually superfluous and can be avoided or forgone with a bit of research or an inquisitive private message. Akin to the forum freakout is the ignorant response. Usually something along the lines of "Snails is bad, kill before thems be multiplyin'." Don't listen to these. Instead take the above avenue, ask insightful questions and do proper research. Even searching "snail help" on google will get you more information than making a frantic forum post. 3. Now that we got out of the way the first reactions to a snail appearance, let's establish how they made their way to your tank. Many people purchase snails for their tanks. The very same snails you're finding for free. They most frequently come in on plants, decorations, substrate or even transferred filter media. They can come from sneaky adults (like Malaysian Trumpet Snails in substrate) or as eggs, like we talked about on plants. Egg sacs usually hatch 8-12 babies based on what I have seen from my snails, and not all typically survive in a balanced environment. 4. Time to help you decide what type of snail is in your tank. There's four main types of snail you'll see come in through egg or by a small baby sneaking in somehow. There's the Ramshorn, so named for its shell which is curled like a ram's horn. They have fleshy pink/nude bodies with eyes on a distinct rounded head. Their shell almost looks like an @ symbol, and they are usually tan, but come in a pink albino variation, blue, and tiger spotted. They also come in two common sizes. Mini and regular. Regular variations grow no larger than an 1/2 of an inch to an inch, and miniatures stay the size of a large pea. Next are pond/bladder snails. Simply put, these are the most common and likely most hated of the snails. And for little reason other than they have a wide variety of foods they'll eat. These stay small, growing only a bit larger than mini Ramshorns. The easiest way to tell these snails apart is a football shaped shell with a distinct little spiral at the end of their "bladder" shaped main shell. They're usually brown/tan in color with a nude colored body. The last of the most common snails are MTS or Malaysian trumpet snails. These are the easiest to tell what type of snail it is, but sometimes the hardest to spot. They are black bodied with cone shaped spiraled shells, and can become as long as 3/4 of an inch. They're sometimes so hard to find because whereas the previous two snails I detailed hunt for food above the substrate, these hunt for food below the substrate. Last are assassin snails. These are pretty well coveted snails, but I've seen their eggs transferred unknowingly in the past. These are easy to spot, as they have tan and black spiraled shells, grow large and are sold on just about every freshwater invertebrate site there is. 5. Let's get into the basics of and merits of these snails. The most different of all of them would be assassins. Their diet is snails and protein basically. Ramshorns will eat protein if available to them, some types of algae, mulm and detritus. Bladder snails will eat all of what Ramshorns eat and more. And MTS will eat mulm, detritus and plant matter that is dead. They don't eat algae so far as I know. Each of these snails can serve a purpose in your tank, based on their diet and how they might fit into your ecosystem. I personally have two types of snails in each of my tanks. 6. Answering the dreaded question: will they mass reproduce and be the deadly bunnies that will crash my ecosystem?! Perhaps. That's on you, not them. They will reproduce to the extent of the food they're given. In this manner, they are FANTASTIC pets insofar as they tell you how much or how little you're feeding your tank. If your snails are getting food enough to keep a stable population, your shrimp are likely getting a perfect amount of food and your ecosystem doesn't have much food going to waste. If their population dwindles, you should feed more. If their population explodes, look at the food imbalance and find a way to fix it. 7. Deciding if you should keep your new pet or not: Have you ever thought about having snails? If not, consider these things: they control excess food, and if you have no excess food, their population will take care of itself. They can be a food source. They are intriguing little pets, whimsical to watch, and they have a great reproduction cycle, so at any given point when someone looks at your tank, you can show them how life exists. From the empty shells to the egg sac on your plant leaf to the baby just growing through to adulthood. If your answer is a resounding no: no snails. Don't purchase something to eat them, because just like New York now has a problem with coyotes brought here to eat deer, you'll have an issue once your new predator runs out of food. Consider these options: If you remove all adults and RAOK them, you have eliminated all sources of new snails for a while. Just squish the little ones as they grow with tongs. They make a fantastic meal for shrimp. Alrighty, that's all I think I have to say for now on the subject. There will be no questions. Are there any questions? (Reference from The Office) Seriously, let me know if you need pictures, frankly disagree with what I'm saying or have something to add. If you've been helped by the topic, perhaps ask for it to be stickied if you think others will be helped by it. Much love from NY, Mark

These are some of the things I've learned over the years taking care of my sponge filters and thought it may come in handy for some people. If you have any additional tricks, feel free to share! We all need to help each other. Most of my experience has been with the XY 2831, however most of the models are pretty similar. The pieces are like legos. Pop them off, put them together. Double to Single So you can make a double a single if needed, by rearranging the pieces. Pop off the air lift, pop off the side arm, pop them together and voila. Nice to know if you have an extra filter around and a small tank. Even Flow After buying a sponge filter, take off the sponge and look at the sponge arm. Looks kinda like a silencer on a gun. Sometimes all the holes are not open due to plastic pooling during manufacturing. The plastic is soft, so just use a pair of scissors and put the point in the hole and twist. By opening all the holes, you have a nice even draw across the sponge. Bubbles Have Slowed or Stopped So you say you are losing that air power? Your air pump must not be working right? Are you sure? Pop off your air hose, and drop it in the water. Still good power bubbles? Then it's your air lift. Let's fix it. There's three fixes that can be done. Just depends where your blockage is. I'll list in order of most likely to least likely, however having said that all three have happened to me at one point or another. Pop off your air lift tube, and take the 2nd inner tube out as well. Take a new small dollar store toothbrush and scrub the inside of the lift where the clear meets the black inside. Sometimes some crud or a snail is lodged there. Still not clear? This is what the hole looks like inside the black air lift seat. Sometimes the clear plastic lift tube gets pushed down too far and blocks the hole partly or totally. It shouldn't do that, but sponge filters sometimes don't read their own instruction manuals. Take some pliers or hemostats and pull that tube upward to expose more of the hole. On some filters it is easy, on some it can be a struggle. On the easy ones, sometimes you can wiggle them with your hands and pull up. On the harder ones if you use your tool to move it back and forth like a wrench on a nut, it helps. Still not working? There is one more fix. See the air hose hole? A coffee straw is the perfect size for plunging. Sometimes a tiny snail gets stuck in there. By plunging that hole, you break up that snail shell and it gets expelled once the air hose is reattached. Air Pressure Air pressure to the sponge filter is actually a complicated relation of how long the air hose is, and how high or low the filter is placed. In short, if the filter is on your bottom rack, and your air pump is high, it has to work harder to push down the air down there. The same is true in your tank. If your filter is located deeper in your aquarium, it is harder to push the air there than it is if it is located near the top of your aquarium. Soooo, if you have more than one filter on an air pump, and you move one to clean it or for another reason, when you place it back in, you may find the ratio of air going to your tank connections is off. That's just because the placement of your filter is either higher or lower than it was before. Cleaning the Sponges Provided you are using a double sponge filter, clean one one week, and then give at least a week for that to recolonize before cleaning the other one. If you don't, your bacteria colonies may crash and you'll start losing shrimp. To clean, squeeze the removed sponge in either removed tank water or RO, then replace. Don't worry about shrimp getting into the sponge arm holes. The tubes are hollow, nothing dangerous inside, and they'll find their way our with the current from the bubbles. My Sponge Feels Like Clay, or It's Now Hourglass Shaped You are either using a sponge as a prefilter, or it's been a super long time since you've cleaned your sponge. Basically the pores are clogged. Clean the sponge and you'll be surprised how much crud/black water comes out. I hope this has helped some. Feel free to add more tips and tricks.

Hi there... Here is mine ... Lets begin from sulawesi waters . Water parameters: Dimensions: 60x40x40cm ~ 90 liter Filtration: hang-on filter EHEIM LiBERTY 2042 Substrate: gravel Decoration: Lava rock Water parameters: temp 28.5 gh 5 kh 4 ph 8.0-8,2 tds 130 no3 0-5 Lighting 12 hours 2 t8 x18watt. Water change R.O . with salty shrimp mineral 8.5 . Every two weeks 10 liter. the setup at may 2014 The shrimps added at july 2014, 9 of them. Growing cladophora algae, and tank turn like this. Some photos of shrimps. Crs Dimensions:40x30x30cm Filtration: hang-on filter EHEIM LiBERTY Substrate: akadama Decoration: wood Water parameters: temp 24 gh 5 kh 0-1 ph 6.2-64 tds 118 no3 0-5 Lighting 12 hours 1 t5 28 watt Water change R.O . with salty shrimp mineral Every weeks 5liter On the left is crs grada a-ss and on the left is ss-sss and snowhites. And now the easy shrimps... Filtration: hang-on filter EHEIM LiBERTY Substrate: gravel Decoration: wood Water parameters: temp 24 gh 6 kh 3 ph 6.4 no3 0-5 Lighting 12 hours 1 t5 28 watt for 3 tanks Water change R.O .and tap water Every weeks 5liter co2 24/7 From left to right tanks Yellow fire, snowball and orange. The rcs is in 10 liter aquarium. . And now fish tanks and my last project at ada an aga... Thats all...

Playing with the camera again. It really boggles my mind how these creatures manage to molt. Look at that bad-a$$ rostrum. Details of the compound eye Two different pairs of claws. One for sweeping and one for scraping. Look at the muscle on the scraping one. Swimmerettes like feathers Wonder what the tail spikes are for?

Most of you know that I honestly believe secrets in shrimping will kill the hobby in America if left to continue. For example, it was once that way with reptile breeding, and as soon as people became open with knowledge gained- the reptile business exploded with more people than ever entering the hobby! So Kudos to the members here for sharing so freely in what has been learned from breeders and personal experience! Also THANK YOU for welcoming members both advanced and new into this shrimping hobby of ours! We've done a great job in making sure everyone feels welcome here, and I'm sure we'll continue to make friendliness and openness our top priorities here! If there's ever any spam or a flame war in the making, just remember that two words to the left of the "multiquote" tab under the post is the word "report." Click on that, write your concerns, and the mods will figure things out ASAP. We're all in this together folks! We're all one community! Kudos to YOU for making this forum a success!

I like taking pictures of my shrimps with my Nikon and my cellphone camera. Feel free to post some of your favorite shrimp pics here to share. Here's a few of mine to start

Haven't posted in a while! Hope everyone is doing well~ My red TBs having a ball~ Mosura mama and her baby My first Aura Blues~ Posing Tangerine Tiger Two BBs plotting to take over the world

We just reached our 1,000th member! (well, 2 away at the time of this writing, but we will be there by the time most members here read this. LOL) Over 50,500+ posts!! ALL THANKS TO YOU!!! Members here are Amazing! Friendly! Helpful! AWESOME!!! Throw the spaghetti!!!...er...confetti!!! Release the Baboons!!!...er...balloons. Look,...the truth is a forum is just a bunch of computer jibberish...just software...binary code... But YOU are what makes THIS forum successful. YOU are the driving force here. And we, the staff, humbly thank YOU for your time that you choose to spend here and the information you so freely give. We value you and thank you for being part of our dysfunctional family. Here's to many more years of Shrimp Spot being your family forum! THANK YOU!

Hi all, Decided to take the plunge and become sponsor! Probably not too many Canadian users on here but wanted to support the site so I guess that would make me the first Canadian sponsor. SKA is short for "Shrimpkeepers Anonymous" and it is both the name I use for my own shrimps as well as the name of my business. I consider myself mostly a breeder but I been importing a number of brands from all over the world for the last little bit to make them accessible to all Canadian shrimp hobbyists. Our current line-up includes Salty Shrimp, GlasGarten, Benibachi, Aqua Design Amano, Prodibio, Dennerle / Shrimp King, Breeder 'n Keepers, Söchting, Bio-Culture, and many more. As for shrimps, our selection would be somewhat limited as again, I focus mainly on breeding and developing my own line of PRLs but I have many projects on the go and more tanks coming! We are based in Calgary, Alberta Canada (just above Montana). We can ship dry goods to the US using UPS (~ $15-35) but honestly there is already a great network of sellers / sponsors there so I don't think we have much to offer that you can't already get from those guys. Anyways, thank-you for viewing and thank-you for having me! Hung Lee SKA Shrimps Edit: We are still working on a website but in the mean time our product & prices list can be found in the links below or on our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/skashrimps Current product lists with prices & availability now up: Livestock: http://www.shrimpspot.com/index.php?/topic/3061-current-livestock-list/ Dry Goods: http://www.shrimpspot.com/index.php?/topic/3060-current-dry-goods-product-list-availability/ Beside The Shrimp Spot, I am also active on Alberta Aquatica (under SKA Shrimps & jumpsmasher) http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showforum=176 and occasionally on GTA Aquaria and TPT

I hope you all don't mind me sharing this here as well! I recently submitted an article about shrimp macro photography to Photography Life, and they decided to publish it! I hope you all enjoy it too https://photographylife.com/aquarium-macro-photography-of-ornamental-shrimp

We have now surpassed One Thousand Seven Hundred members here! To all our new members, Thank you for joining! We are very happy to have you here! To our members here who have been here for some time, Thank You for making this the best Shrimp forum around! The staff here works hard behind the scenes, and sometimes we make mistakes trying to do what we think is right at the time. We do our best, but it is YOU that make this forum a success! Let's face it, a forum is just data. Software. Computer bits. It is YOU that make this forum come alive, and we haven't forgotten that! Your generosity sharing information, your positive attitudes, your encouraging posts to one another, and your self policing makes this forum not only unique, but a joy to come to! Can you believe it's only been since around November 2013 that we started? Here's to another three years of passionate shrimp keeping! THANK YOU, Shrimp Spot! YOU ARE THE BEST!!!

I think it is important to note that various shrimpkeeping "regions" have their own approach, philosophies , preferences when it comes to the varies aspect of shrimp keeping and the products come these regions reflect this. Really as far as shrimp are concern there are 3 main "hotbed"; Japan, Germany & Taiwan / SE Asia. The Japanese of course are the birthplace of the CRS and been doing this much longer than anywhere else in the world and certainty before the influx of commercial products. They are also are perfectionists & isolationists; they favour quality over quantities and many of the product they used are found locally and adapted from other industries or traditional methods. That being said; japanese breeders use what I would call a supplement heavy approach; but one that is somewhat rooted in tradition; i.e. "secrets" & techniques are passed down from generation to generation; from master to apprentices etc; I think it might also be that they have soft water as well so more supplements are needed. They are not too concern about the exact make up of a product; as long as it works (or they believe it works). For us outsiders there is a couple issues; 1) the vagueness / lost in translation of these products create a bit of "mystic" around them aka "magic bean" - especially once third parties (i.e foreigner distributors / retailers) start marketing them. 2) What is readily available in Japan and fairly inexpensive there cost quite a bit more state side. Also it cost the breeder a fraction of what the retail price is to use; so price is less of an issue 3) The average hobbyists there only have room for a few smallish tanks so they spoil their shrimps; quality over quantities 4) They generally use strong lighting for their tanks so algae / biofilm occur naturally - no need for supplements for that. Final word is; they are crazy when it comes to dosing supplements - cheap for them / expensive for us, works for them but don't expect a detail explanation of exactly how it works. The Taiwanese on the other hand are very good are taking a product, reverse engineering it, maybe improve it and then mass producing it. Importing products from Japan would be quite costly so of course home-grown products would be much affordable and also a point of pride i.e. (see sino - japanese relations). I would say some of their product won't exactly the same as some ingredients would be more costly to get in taiwan but for the most part they do similar things. The industry is also very competitive in Taiwan; more so than Japan so everyone is always trying to come up with a new or different approach. Breeding farms are of much larger scale in taiwan as well so we will see many techniques incorporate this ability to scale up or be more efficient. I.e. in Japan they use lots of canister filters but in the new taiwan farms it is all about central air driven systems and instead of 5-6 different food they combine those down to 3-4 types. I found with taiwanese products they product more specifics in terms of ingredients, research etc; I guess you can say they are a more modern & efficent take on the japanese way. Last but not least, there is the Germans; They always kinda made do with what they have already but at the same time to have a strong history in the the aquarium trade so they have lots of existing "tried-and-tested" / proven techniques and products they can draw from. They are very good are selective breeding and crossings. I would say their approach is more or less using what they already have for products there; although they also introduced many natural products like locally found leaves and fruits into their shrimp lines. I guess we are lucky here in North America as we get to take the best from all 3. I been using Benibachi / Mosura products since pretty much the beginning (5-6 years) and I am happy with them. I tried a few lowkey products as well and they are good too. For me I always to to group similar products together and just go with the one that works for me. i.e for food, i have a color food, a growth food, some natural supplement & treats type food, and a baby food. For supplements; i have a weekly bacteria additive, something for shell developement (red & white), mineral powder, molting / growth / breeding aids. I am not too picky; if i run out of something i just grab something similar from another brand that i can get my hands on - of course now that I am a benibachi dealer is always have lots of their product but before that i just used many different brands. Can't comment specifically on Double speed but from my eyes it is not much different what i currently dose for the same purpose (Benibachi BeeMax + Bee Speed) Everyone is different and some people prefer the taiwanese approach while others like the japanese way of doing things. I always tell people find a approach that works for you and that will help narrow down your choice of products

I decided to do a Christmas roak to thank everyone on The Shrimp Spot for all your support. This should be a good one. The winner will receive 12 Taiwan bee shrimp shipped for free USPS express with a heat pack to anywhere in the lower 48 states. I will send a mix including at least 2 wine reds, 2 shadow pandas, 2 blue bolts, 2 black pandas and 4 more of my choice. The winner may also choose a portion of moss to be sent with them. I have red moss, pellia, weeping moss, mini fissidens, or flame moss. I will also be adding a starter portion of bucephalandra or anubias stardust. The roak will end Sunday 12-13-15 at 6pm. Shipping will be Monday 12-14-16. Just start a list and I will choose the number with a random number generator. Good luck! If we make it to 100 entries I will give away two pinto shrimp as my picks! Because of mail delays I have decided to upgrade shipping to USPS Express.

After several years of breeding shadows and crs together I think I finally stumbled across a very unique find.

There are a lot of acronyms that we use here so I thought I would post a list of the common ones. If you are viewing the forum on your computer you should be able to hover over these acronyms and a tiny popup should show the expanded term but if you are viewing this on a mobile device that function may not be supported. BB - Blue Bolt (Taiwan Bee) BBRR - Blue Body Red Rili Shrimp BKK - Black King Kong (Taiwan Bee) BP - Blue Pearl Shrimp BTOE - Black Tiger Orange Eyed Shrimp BV - Blue Velvet Shrimp card - Caridina (genus of shrimp which includes Crystal Shrimp) cards - Caridina (genus of shrimp which includes Crystal Shrimp) CBS - Crystal Black Shrimp CPD - Celestial Pearl Danio CPO - Orange Dwarf Crayfish - Cambarellus Patzcuarensis (var. orange ) CRS - Crystal Red Shrimp DI - Distilled Water GH - General Hardness (Ca and Mg) IAL - Indian Almond Leaf KH - Carbonate Hardness KK - Black King Kong (Taiwan Bee) MTS - Malaysian Trumpet Snail Neo - Neocaridina (genus of shrimp which includes Cherry Shrimp) Neos - Neocaridina (genus of shrimp which includes Cherry Shrimp) NO2 - Nitrites NO3 - Nitrates OEBT - Orange Eyed Blue Tiger Shrimp PBL - Pure Black Line (Crystal Black Shrimp with no Golden Crystal Genes) PFR - Painted Fire Red (High Grade Cherry Shrimp) pH - measure of the acidity or basicity of a liquid PRL - Pure Red Line (Crystal Red Shrimp with no Golden Crystal Genes) R/O - Reverse Osmosis RAOK - Random Act Of Kindness RBT - Royal Blue Tiger RCS - Red Cherry Shrimp RO - Reverse Osmosis RR - Red Ruby (Taiwan Bee) TB - Taiwan Bee TDS - Total Dissolved Solids Tibee - Hybrid of Tiger x Bee (Usually Tiger x CRS/CBS) TOD - Tank Of Death TT - Tangerine Tiger Shrimp WC - Water Change WR - Red Wine (Taiwan Bee)

decent shots of some of the blues with Iphone.

Berried Cardinal

Please join me in a big thank you to Mayphly for agreeing to become a moderator and helping us out!

All of my shrimp that I have to offer have been bred by my self and culled to get the quality that I desire. All stock can now be found on our site at TGOESHRIMP.COM Usps two day priority shipping is $15 and $35 for express. I cover all doa as long as you send me a clear picture of the dead shrimp in bag with my shipping label in the picture one hours upon delivery. All boxes will be insulated, I can provide heat and cold packs at $2 each. I'm currently working on expanding and will have more shrimp available soon.

I will try to take a few extra pictures this weekend for you all but in my F1 Taitibee tank you would be so surprised of the different patterns. All of them are different! I have a picture here of a F1 Taitibee that looks to have a Zebra Pattern and another that is similar to the mom but better white coverage. I am currently setting up another tank purely to extend this project out. The cross from my Female Tibee above was with an Extreme BKK. Thank you all for asking and keeping me positive through this long journey. It is your support that has kept me on this path to success.

Finally... I setup my flashes and tripod, and tried to take some serious photos of my Red Spotted Head Pinto. You are able to find more of the pinto photos here: http://www.shrimpydaddy.com/blogs/moments/17690897-red-spotted-head-pinto

I posted this on The Planted Tank's forum a couple of years ago, and this thread was brought to my attention, so it seemed appropriate to share the information here as well. Most of the information here is in regards to fresh leaves as opposed to dry, but it may be of interest to you. As far as dried leaves go, I use oak, maple, and fruit tree leaves. They adore apple and pear leaves, but you've got to use a lot of caution with trees that are treated as frequently as fruit trees are and make sure you know the history of the leaves. Regarding green leaves, I feed my shrimp spinach and turnip greens fairly regularly, but I decided to see whether they liked common weeds and other plants that grow in my yard. The reason was both one of convenience and nutrition. It's very easy to pick some oxalis on my way into the house from my car and the nutritional content of these various plants may be able to more effectively feed shrimp than exclusively feeding spinach or turnip greens. I stuck to plants that I knew were edible for humans and were fairly widespread geographically. Note: I do not treat my lawn in any way, and haven't for years. If you're using herbicides and insecticides and decide to feed the treated plants to your shrimp, it's on your head. Method: All plants were picked, rinsed, and promptly parboiled in the microwave for 1 minute. The parboiled leaves were then frozen into ice cubes for storage until testing. The leaves were offered to a small tank (3 gallons) of cherry shrimp after not feeding them for 1 day. The shrimp's immediate reaction was noted and the condition of the leaves after 12 hours and 24 hours was recorded. Leaves were removed after 24 hours. No attempt was made to standardize portion size. Only a single test was done for each leaf type. It is entirely possible that repeated testing would reveal different results. If you try these foods and find that your shrimp react differently, please post your results on this thread. Additionally, some of the plants took much longer to be consumed than others simply because of the quantity available. Results: Apple leaves: These were very well received. Juvenile shrimp were interested immediately, the leaf was partially consumed within a day. **A caution: Fruit trees are often treated for insects. If you do not know for certain that the tree has not been treated this season, do not use the leaves.** Immediate: Juveniles before it hit the bottom 12h: Several shrimp 24h: Much interest, leaf partially consumed. 2 days: Gone Clover - White: Surprisingly little interest. Immediate: Investigated but ignored 12h: Untouched 24h: Untouched Dandelion - Young: Dandelion leaves less than 2" in length were chosen. These were very well received by the shrimp and were completely eaten within an hour. Their response to young dandelion leaves was on par to their response to spinach or turnip greens. Immediate: High interest 12h: Completely consumed 24h: - Dandelion - Old: Sections of dandelion leaves with length greater than 5" were chosen. Little interest. Immediate: High initial interest 12h: Almost untouched 24h: Almost untouched Grape: Smaller leaves were chosen, less than 4" across. These were very well received and were eaten much more like a tree leaf than a spinach leaf. Aside from young dandelion leaves, these were by far the most popular of the plants I tried. Immediate: High interest 12h: Numerous shrimp eating 24h: Almost consumed, many shrimp still eating (I let them finish it, as it seemed mean to take away the leaf while they were enjoying it so much.) Oxalis: Also known as wood sorrel. These were eaten, but there was not the initial rush to devour them that was seen with dandelions and grapes. A small quantity was used, so it is hard to compare the response to something like a grape leaf. Immediate: Little interest 12h: Almost consumed 24h: Consumed Broadleaf Plantain - Young and Old: Two separate tests were done with broadleaf plantains (which are not closely related to the tropical bananas of the same name.) Both were underwhelming. Immediate: Swarmed by juvenile shrimp 12h: Almost untouched 24h: Almost untouched Raspberry leaves: Ignored initially, devoured later. I left this in the tank for a few days and it wound up being thoroughly enjoyed. The shrimp treated it much more like a tree leaf than a spinach leaf. Immediate: Some interest 12h: Untouched 24h: Untouched 4 days: Gone Rose leaves: Rose leaves are fairly thick, so I expected them to be treated as a tree leaf. There was a surprising amount of interest in the leaf as soon as it was in the water, however, and the shrimp were still nibbling at it 24 hours later. Four days out, it was consumed completely. **A caution: Roses are some of the most heavily treated plants people keep in their gardens. If you are uncertain about whether a rose bush has been treated, do not use the leaves.** Immediate: Moderate interest 12h: Appearance unchanged, shrimp still interested 24h: Some holes, shrimp still interested 4 days: Gone Rose Petal: Very difficult to sink, devoured once it hit bottom. My shrimp rarely swim up to floating food, so there was no surprise when this didn't attract a lot of interest while bumping around at the top of the tank. Gone in a couple of hours once it hit bottom. Times are from when it finally sank. Next spring I hope to test apple, pear, and multiflora rose petals, all closely related plants. **A caution: Roses are some of the most heavily treated plants people keep in their gardens. If you are uncertain about whether a rose bush has been treated, do not use the petals. I personally would avoid any and all commercially purchased flower petals as well.** Immediate: Frenzy 12h: Gone 24h: Still Gone Wild Strawberry: Very surprising, but these were completely ignored. Immediate: No interest 12h: Untouched 24h: Untouched Analysis: By far the best received plants from my backyard were grape leaves, rose petals, and young dandelion leaves. Oxalis leaves were also consumed completely. The introduction of these leaves, especially grape leaves, which can easily be dried and stored through the winter, should provide some additional variety to my shrimp's diet. Plants I would like to try but was unable to find in my yard: Chickweed Lamb's Quarters (I'd probably eat this one myself rather than giving it to the shrimp...)

I tend to have a lot going on when it comes to shrimp, fish, and other aquadic ventures. I'd like to share my story from my struggles to my achievements. I've always had pets growing up of those included many fish tanks, but this is a shrimp forum so that's where I'm going to start. It all starred with just a ten gallon red cherry shrimp tank. I started with ten red cherrys I got from a lps. At first I was really happy but the more my shrimp grew up the less color they had and I was just not pleased, the clear ones I fed to my oscars because I swore they were ghost shrimp at the time. Needless to say I spent some more money and got 20 high grade red cherrys and that's when the madness Started. My tank quickly turned into a mad house of over populated red cherrys of all grades this drove me nuts. so I went got me two more tanks and started culling shrimp into different grades. Eventually I ended up with one high grade tank and one low grade tank and threw the low grade tank into my lilly pond out back. I now have two red cherry only tanks. A 10 gallon and a 55 gallon. I have 46 fish tanks that's just two I'll do a new segment every few days giving room for questions and suggestions if you know something I have and would like to see it let me know because I might be saving that for last. Also please I'd like to hear all suggestions and criticism please.

As some might now, I do love my planted tanks also and haven't had one in over a year so decided to set one up again.Its a 60*45*45 starfire I had some time this afternoon so decided to start with the scape I had in mind.I will still tweek here and there till im happy before I start plantingJust some pictures of how everything started [/URL] I will update as I go along

Hi everybody! I have been quiet lately as we moved house and life, but wanted to share my new rack. The tanks are 120*45*30cm, divided in 4. The middle tanks will be replaced with the same as on the top and bottom shelve. Top tank is still cycling and I will transfer all the CRS to this one, according to grade, S grade left, SS grade second left, SSS grade second right and TB in right tank Same will happen with the middle tank, as with grading and then golden bees in the right side tank Bottom is Neos, left are culls, second left are dreamy blues, second right are Taiwan Fire reds and normal tigers and then left are blue jelly. I will update as I go along

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Updated 10/27/2016 NEW ARRIVALS: SHRIMPS: Blue Velvet Shrimps (Neocaridina) Blue Dream Neocaridina Orange Pumpkin Neocaridina Blue Bolts NADAL Black Pinto Shrimps NADAL Black Skrunk Hybrids NADAL Super CBS NADAL Blue Bee Shrimp (Paracaridina) Amano Shrimp SNAILS: Batik Nerite Snails Sun Horned Nerite Snails Assorted Horned Nerite Snails (Zebra/Solid/Olive) FISH: Otocinclus Galaxy Rasboras Mosquito Rasboras / Chilli Rasboras Strawberry Rasboras Asian Rummy Nose Rasboras (Sawbwa resplendens) Scarlet Badis Clown Killie (Epiplatys annulatus) photos: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.549680178468879.1073741829.548098501960380&type=3 Neocaridina Fire Red / Red Sakura mix - $3 ea / 10 for $ 28 / 20 for $ 50 Orange Pumpkin Shrimp - $4 ea. / 10 for $ 35 / 20 for $ 60 Blue Velvet Shrimp, normal grade (light blue) - $ 4 ea. / 10 for $ 35 (few - ready 10/31) Blue Velvet Shrimp, high grade (med-dark blue) - $ 5 ea. / 10 for $ 45 (ready 10/31) Blue Dream Shrimps - $10 ea. Green Jade Shrimps - $8 ea. (sold out) Caridina SKA Pure Red Line Entry Grade, Mixed Band - $ 8 EA / 10 for $ 70 SKA Pure Red Line Entry Grade, Hino / No-Entry - $ 12 ea / 10 for $ 100 (sold out) SKA Golden Bee Shrimp - $ 4 ea Black King Kong, 1-2 Bars - $18 ea. / 10 for $150 (few) Black King Kong, Panda - $15 ea. / 10 for $120 (sold out) Black King Kong, Extreme - $35 ea. / 5+: $30 (sold out) Wine Red, 1-2 Bars - $28 ea. (sold out) Wine Red, Panda - $24 ea./ 10 for $210 (sold out) Wire Red, Extreme - $65 ea. / 3+: $60 ea. (sold out) Blue Bolts, A grade - $ 15 ea. / 10 for $120 Blue Bolts, S grade - $ 24 ea. (sold out) Blue Bolts, Extreme grade - $ 35 ea. (sold out) Taiwan Bee + CBS / CRS Mischlings (juvies) - $5 ea / 10 for $45 (preorder / waiting list) Tangerine Tiger shrimp - $ 7 ea. (few ) Tiger shrimp (regular type) - $3.50 ea / 10 for $ 30 (few) Wild type Bee Shrimp (Caridina cf breviata ) - $3.50 ea / 10 for $ 30 Green Babaulti shrimp - $ 4 ea Malaya Shrimps (aka Rainbow Shrimps) - $3 ea / 10 for $ 25 Amano Algae Eating Shrimps - $3.00 ea. / 10 for $28 / 20 for $50.00 (ready 11/03) Michael NADAL Shrimps (Germany) NADAL Wild Crystal Black Shrimps (original Bee Shrimp - very rare!) - $10 ea. / 10 for $85 (few) NADAL B/C Grade Crystal Red Shrimps (high pH) - $4.50 ea. / 10 for $40 (sold out) NADAL Super CRS (low / mid grade) - $16 ea. / 10 for $140 new lower price! NADAL Super CBS (low / mid grade) - $18 ea. / 10 for $150 (ready 11/02) NADAL Crystal White Shrimps - $15 ea. / 10 for $120 NADAL Blue Bee Shrimps (Paracaridina sp. Blue Bee) - $10 ea. / 10 for $90 (ready 11/02) NADAL Red TaiTiBee (Red Fancy Tiger) - $18 ea. / 10 for $160 (sold out) NADAL Red Tiger Shrimp (Normal Grade) - $ 12 ea. / 10 for $ 100 NADAL Orange Eye Blue Tiger Shrimps - $18 ea. / 10 for $160 NADAL Black Tiger Orange Eye (BT0 Grade) - $ 32 ea. / 5+: $ 25 ea. (sold out) NADAL Royal Blue Tiger - $ 33 ea. / 5+: $ 30 ea. NADAL German Black Pinto, mixed patterns (multistripes, 1-2 spots) - $30 ea. / 5+: $25 (ready 11/02) NADAL German Red Pinto, mixed patterns (multistripes, 1-2 spots) - $35 ea. / 5+: $30 SPECIAL Pricing NADAL German Red Spotted Head Pinto (3+ spots) - $50 ea. SPECIAL Pricing NADAL Black Skunk Mischlings (high grade) - $60 ea. / 5+: $50 ea. (few) NADAL Red Galaxy Mischlings (TangTaiBee, low grade) - $21 ea. / 10 for $180 (few) NADAL Yellow King Kong - $18 ea. / 10 for $150 BENIBACHI shrimp (Japan) BENIBACHI Black Bee Shrimp, Hinomaru Mid Grade - $ 69 ea / 3+: $ 59 ea. (sold out) Snails Orange Rabbit Snails - $ 6ea / 3 for $ 15 Yellow Rabbit Snails - $ 5 ea/ 3 for $ 12 (sold out) Yellow Rabbit Snails, Juvies (1.5-2cm) - $ 2.50 ea / 3 for $ 6 (sold out) Towuti White Spotted Rabbit Snails - $ 4 ea. / 3 for $ 10 (sold out) Zebra Nerite Snails - $3.00 ea. / 10 for $28 (sold out) Batik Nerite Snails - $ 3 ea. / 6 for $ 15 / 20 for $ 40 (ready 10/31) Sun Horned Nerite Snails - $ 3 ea. / 6 for $ 15 / 20 for $ 40 (ready 10/31) Assorted Horned Nerite Snails - $ 3 ea. / 6 for $ 15 / 20 for $ 40 (ready 10/31) Crayfish Mini Blue Crayfish (Cambarellus Diminitus) - $ 10 ea / 3 for $ 27 (sold out) Orange Dwarf Mexican Crayfish (Cambarellus patzcuarensis ‘Orange’) - $10 ea (few) Australian Red Claw Crayfish (Cherax quadricarinatus) - $10 ea. Cherax destructor (Common Yabby), 3-4cm - $ 10 ea (1 left) Cherax pulcher (Hoa Creek Lobster) - $ 80 / pair (M / F) - (sold out) Cherax pulcher (Hoa Creek Lobster)- $ 40 ea. (sold out) Cherax snowden (Orange Tip Lobster) - $ 40 ea. (1 left) Cherax communis, 4-5cm - $85 / pair (M/F) - (very rare! limited qty) (sold out) Cherax communis, 4-5cm - $45 ea. (few - males only) Cherax monticola, 4-5cm - $110 / pair (M/F) - (sold out) Cherax monticola, 4-5cm - $55 ea. - (sold out) Fish Galaxy Rasboras / Celestial Pearl Danio - $ 3.49 / 6+: $ 3.29 / 20+: $ 2.99 Emerald Rasboras (Celestichthys erythromicron) - $ 3.49 / 6+: $ 3.29 / 20+: $ 2.99 Mosquito Rasbora / Chilli Rasboras - $ 2.99 / 6+: $ 2.79 / 20+: $ 2.49 Strawberry Rasboras - $ 2.99 / 6+: $ 2.79 / 20+: $ 2.49 Asian Rummy Nose Rasboras (Sawbwa resplendens) - $ 3.49 / 6+: $ 3.29 / 20+ $ 2.99 Scarlet Badis - $ 3.49 / 6+: $ 3.29 Clown Killie (Epiplatys annulatus) - $3.99 ea. / 6+: $ 3.49 ea. Coral Red Pencilfish (Nannostomus mortenthaleri) - $14.99 ea / 6+: $12.99 (sold out) Panda Loaches (Yaoshania pachychilus) - $11.99 ea / 6+: $10.99 (sold out) Otocinclus - $ 2.99 ea. / 6+: $ 2.79 / 20+: $ 2.49 (ready 11/01) SHIPPING We currently only ship livestock within Canada. Shipping costs will range from $25-35 CAD for a small box. We only ship livestock via UPS Express (overnight) DOA POLICY In cases of DOA, we will refund or credit you back the cost of the livestock (excluding shipping) as long as the following conditions are met: shipment must be received on the first delivery attempt send a photo of the dead livestock inside the bag to sales@skashrimps.com within 2 hours of the delivery. we sometimes send extras at no charge to cover any DOA's - these are excluded from any DOA calculations

I got some good stuff from the shrimp tank today Thanks Will! So far my shrimp love the bee pollen Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A few of my German red pintos.

Red TB's

What an honor

Just did a quick write up on how I keep my rbt for a fellow member thought I would share. It's kind of basic so any questions please feel free to ask, I'm not about secrets. I have the high grade bb, shadow mosuras, and these guys are still hands down my favorite, so I want to share. Little background, have been keeping them for a little under 2 years, with a move across the country last year where I sold a bunch off and it took a while to recover. But since spring they have been at it and I have probably 600 now with at least 25 of those being berried females now. Here's what I did the past 2 times i set up a tank for them. I use a 12 long with sponge filter and canister(2213 first time and rena xp1 this time). I used 10lbs of seiryu with maybe a half bag of amazonia? I believe in using a ton of plants. Been using hc for the past 2 years, the amount of babies that hide down in it is just insane, can't even trim anymore with out 10 babies swimming out every cut. Here's a old pic of the tank, glosso didn't work, now use dhg belem, and the needle leaf java got huge. Just checked params the other day, ph7.4 kh3-4 gh6 tds220 temp 68-70. I try to do a 20% water change every week, but I have a 18 month old so that doesn't happen as often any more lol. For wc I make my rodi and immediately throw the powerhead in and remin with salty gh+ to tds100-110 gh like 4-5, dont ever check just use tds. Then I just use mosura tds up to raise tds to what ever i need, if tds is high in tank I will use less tds up. Then i just drip in new water over like a hours time. Been doing it this way for 2 years and it just works for them. For food I use 99% veggies. I kale and spinach like once a year, blanch and feed. Feed this when ever I remember, maybe 2-3 times a week. I feed frozen bloods worms every couple weeks, remember more when breeding is slow. I dont feed very much commercial food, maybe a couple times a month, have a ton of samples so usually grab whatever bag I find. They do seem to like shirakura special and golden eye food most. Supplements I use mosura bt-9 a couple times a week. Been using it for years, shrimp go nuts for it, pretty sure it is just like bacter ae. I also use mosura old sea mud once a week with wc. All I can think of for now. Most pics are pretty old but i'll try to get some new ones this weekend. Look forward to answering any questions.

I thought I'd share this old video I made of my 12g long tank. I hope you enjoy it!!

Hey guys come fallow my journey in keeping shrimp! I've heard great reviews about MK products and decided to try it out for myself. Equipment : Ada - 17gal Ada soil High output t5 2211 ehiem canister filter Heater MK products blue diamond - remineralizer Red diamond - vitamins Silver powder- bacteria Golden powder- trace elements/minerals Mk life balls - help balance out the tank These are the products that i used in the set up. This picture jumped ahead in acouple steps but I'll explain here. First I laid about 2 inches of Ada then added the Silver powder. Hence this contains bacteria. After so ,I poured the rest of the Ada soil on top of the silver powder. Then I sprinkled the golden power on the very top layer. Golden powder contains minerals essential for shrimps. After those steps I decided to play around with the Aqua scape. I ended up with this scape Hard scape consist of oko stone (not sure if I spelled it correctly) and branching wood. I tied xmas moss to the branches. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Is there some type of mechanism that prevents a user from creating multiple accounts? I have begun to see alot of new usernames with less than 5 posts up in the RAOK threads. Being cynical here, but this seems like something I've seen on other forums where people create dummy accounts to increase their odds of winning.

Tonight I was checking my Mischling tank which is full of babies and saw this tiny little blue guy swimming through the moss. I can't tell you how excited I was to see this. This is my first TB from my Mischling. Looks like BKK. I've had them for about 2 years and have been looking forward to this for a long time[emoji1][emoji1][emoji1][emoji1]

Found this little one, it has a skull that looks like the punisher on its back sweet!!

Yesterday I received about a doz beautiful cabon rili shrimp from Soothing. Their blue color is stunning. I opted for the splotched rili since I like different pattens in shrimp. I'll try to get som decent pics of them and post them in the "shrimp pics". Thanks again Bryce!

Shadow shrimp no entry Red spotted pinto Black spotted pinto

My MK Breed Blue Zebra Pinto, she has been very elusive lately now that she is berried.

HI Everyone i'm MK-BREED CRS CENTER Founder thanks users love our products , and attentive records of all changes . i will begin to participate in discussions with everyone here. MK

7

There has been some talk about Taiwan bees breeding true or not. What i did is set up a couple of 2 ft tanks. One tank has has 30 black bees - king kongs, extreme kk, pandas, shadow pandas and a few hino pandas. The other tank has 30 red bees -red wine, red rubies, extreme red rubies and hino red wines. To keep the line pure started with all juveniles. That was 2 months ago. How started to see berried mamas. The next step is to selectively breed out the different grades. i have a few tanks almost done cycling. One sixty gallon for all the culls- mixed grade BKK and Rubies. One 2 ft tank for red wines and one 2 ft tank for black pandas. One 2 ft tank for shadow pandas. All stock pulled from my 75p. All stock came from Germany. Will keep you guys updated.

Here's a few more pics of some of the f2 babies.

I wasn't trying to keep the rack efficient wrt the 2.5s. I added this chrome rack late last fall. With the duct work in the way, I simply set the rack up to handle 10g tanks and put in 2.5's instead. The thought was that I may not like the 2.5's and want to replace them with 10g's. There really wasn't space for a 3rd tier of 2.5's so this worked out well. A lot of fish keepers don't like using 2.5's mostly because of the whole 'they go badly quickly' thing and setting the rack up for 10g's just made sense. My racks are all set up with water, overflow, central air, and DIY LED lighting. The 2.5's get the same percentage and timing of water changes so I have yet to really encounter the overloading of biomass problem. I can see how it would be easy to procrastinate doing hand maintenance on these smaller tanks. Regards, Chris

Been a while since we had this reminder put out there, but since this is winter.... I recently had an order of shrimp come in that looked dead. On their backs, legs up, water very very cold. From all outward appearances, they looked DOA. But, having had this happen before, I went to my old standby- and now all the shrimp "resurrected" and are doing fine. In case anyone needs the info, the steps to take are very simple. Take the bags out, and photograph the shrimp (send it to the seller) in case this doesn't work this time. Set the bags of DOA shrimp on your stand and forget about them for 24 hours. By doing this the water is able to very slowly warm up to room temperature. Examine the bags the next day and see if your shrimp rose from the dead since water is now at room temp. If so, drip acclimate as usual. So why can this happen? Shrimp have the physiology to slow down their body metabolism according to temperature. If the water is very cold, they may be comatose. Yes, they give the appearance of being dead. Cards can even appear orange, believe it or not! Why not add room temperature water into the bag immediately? Because the shock to the system may kill them! Think of coming inside from shoveling the snow. Even room temperature water run over your hands feels like extremely hot water. This is the same reason in the hospital they don't warm someone up instantly. You run the risk of cardiac arrest and death. So to everyone that may receive a bag of DOA shrimp in the winter- You may be correct! However instead of throwing out the shrimp immediately, give this technique a chance first. Even if it only works on a small percent of shipments, you may be pleasantly surprised by the outcome.

Hey SS. Decided to move my shrimp journal here. The other website isn't really a community anymore (not since you guys all moved here) so I decided to make things easier and just post here. With TapaTalk, I find myself always posting on here anyways. This journal is to share my experience with photography, shrimp keeping, and general knowledge. I keep a lot of shrimps, so I didn't want to make too many post so consolidating everyone I own into a single thread is simple. This will compose pictures and setups of all my shrimp stuff. Those familiar with me on the other website should already know I keep Taiwan Bees. Specifically, I keep Pandas, Shadows, Blue Bolts, Extremes, BKK, Red Wines, Ruby Reds, Dragon Wines, etc. There's too many morphs of Taiwan Bees to know. I also keep PRL including Xin/Feather PRL, and Nishiki PRL. Future plans is to finish my semi-rack at my parents. Things are cooling down now and I'm buying a few cooling supplies to help endure the hotter summers to come. Just got some stuff so I'll try my best to update with photos of what I have. Mainly, I want to post pictures of shrimps and develop my photography skills. Any tip on taking macro photography is greatly appreciated! Anyhow, here's a photo of a Blue Bolt.

I visited the 7th edition of the Garnelen Championnat in Hannover. I tried to make a video of the best shrimp as good as possible. You might like it:

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE SHRIMPSPOT! I just want to wish everyone a happy holiday season. I have enjoyed every minute on this forum, and love how large our Shrimp Spot family has grown. So much knowledge and so many good people make up this forum. I can't wait to see what the new year brings us. Thank you everyone for your posting, ideas, likes, comments, and most importantly the friendships I have made.